Saved
by Dark Patrician
Summary: Superheroes, their task in life is to 'save' the regular average people from the threats of the world.


_Disclaimer: I do not own Watchmen, that is the property of DC Comics, created by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. I'm just a guy who had a thought about Watchmen and wrote it down for people to read._

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Superheroes, their task in life is to 'save' the regular average people from the threats of the world. Hooded Justice 'saved' us from the threat of street criminals. Then later on the rest of the Minutemen would join him in 'saving' us from the criminal threat at home.

And when the old heroes retired or were killed, new ones rose up to 'save' us still. A new Nite Owl arose and teamed with Rorschach to 'save' us from the new generations of criminals.

Dr. Manhattan and some say the Comedian 'saved' us from the threat of Vietnam, which ended with the once sovereign nation becoming our 51st state.

Then the Keene Act of 1977 'saved' us from our dependency on superheroes by making them criminals.

But even those who reportedly hung up their tights continued to 'save' us.

Adrian Veidt and Dr. Manhattan 'saved' us from dependency on foreign oil by developing the electric car.

Dr. Manhattan worked for the government to 'save' us from the looming threat of the Soviet Union as our own living, breathing atomic weapon.

Adrian Veidt 'saved' himself by retiring early and then 'saved' us by creating Veidt Enterprises to provide us with everything we'd need to improve our lives.

While many of those superheroes went into quiet retirement, others willingly became villains in the eyes of the law to stay being heroes who 'saved' us, especially Rorschach who 'saved' us with increasingly violent means.

And then PSI-Day happened, the Psychic Squid Invasion Day happened.

The Squid appeared in New York one second, killed three million people in the next second, and died a few seconds later.

The world changed immediately after that. With no superheroes around, we regular people had to 'save' ourselves.

The tragedy united the people of the world in an unprecedented era of love and peace toward their brothers. With the potential threat of invaders from space looming, all of the political problems of the Earth seemed petty by comparison.

Our scientists pushed themselves not toward weapons to destroy other nations but to 'saving' our world: helping their brother nations in times of crisis, curing diseases and wiping out famine.

For a time, we believed that our world was finally 'saved.' The Cold War had ended, heck the most popular meal in both the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R was a hamburger and a bowl of borscht.

Then it all came crashing down.

The first action came from the now missing vigilante Rorschach, after his prison break he left his journal with the New Frontiersman.

The second action came when on a slow news day, the editor of the New Frontiersman prints the contents of the journal. For the most part, the journal was ignored, excluding the occasional nut job, thought to be the flights of fancy of a delusional madman.

Then proof started to filter into the public eye.

Adrian Veidt left New York hours before the Squid's arrival.

A fishing trolley came into port with an artist they rescued from the ocean who claimed he helped create the squid and had "evidence."

An invoice from one of Veidt's companies carried by one of its scientists claiming Veidt had been working on genetic engineering for a decade.

And so on, stories from one small nobody that when looked at as a whole could point to Rorschach telling the truth.

Despite the peace, hatred is as much a part of humanity as love is. The world had entered what many called Utopia, but it could not let go of the raging beast within itself. And it came to pass, that one man with enough power and hatred sought to 'save' the world from the threat of Veidt by taking control of one of his nation's nuclear missiles and using it to attack Veidt.

Upon seeing the incoming weapon of destruction, another powerful man realized the "truth," that the peace that had been created was a trick so that their enemy could lull them into a false sense of security and attack. With this realization, the man decided to 'save' the world from tyranny under their enemy's thumb and fired one of his nation's nuclear weapons back.

And another man saw this and tried to 'save' the world.

And another man saw this and tried to 'save' the world.

And another.

And another.

Adrian Veidt lied, half of New York died, and everybody was happier because of it.

Rorschach told the truth, proved he was a great sleuth, and everybody was killed because of it.

If we are the 'saved,' I shudder to think what it would be like to be one of the damned.

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_AUTHOR NOTE_

_This story was written in response to a story on this site I will not name that took Rorschach and put him in the DC Universe and then consistently preaches that only Rorschach's way of doing things is the right way and other superheroes are dumb for not following his example and killing any villain they see in the bloodiest way possible._

_In the end, the man who would have told the world the truth but was stopped by a god, succeeded, and the world is far poorer because of it. In his quest for justice, billions of lives will be lost...was it worth it? Is it better for peace to occur because of a lie, or should the world know all secrets, despite how much it hurts. These are questions that are not answered easily...but all I can say is that I agree with Victor Sage or Charles Victor Szasz, the Question, in his final analysis of the character he inspired in The Question #17, "Rorschach sucks."_


End file.
